Which Backup?

letsbehonest

I most certainly agree with moonrakerz I too use two hdd and I use ghost 2003 to clone My primary drive monthly, Drives are so cheap now it's got to be the cheapest most reliable way to backup

wolfman

Yep, I've done the same. A 250gb (as an example) is around £50 (I think) these days. I actually already have two in my machine (got loads of stuff), but use the 3rd one (in an external cage type thing) to take backups every so often. It's very quick to do.

In retrospect, I ideally should have got a NAS (Network Attached Storage) device, and could have setup a scheduled backup to that. With my external drive I have to plug it in, so the process is a little more manual and I forget once in a while.

Also, online backups for smaller, maybe more important data are a good idea. I zip up then highly encrypt my data. It gets uploaded to my web server so I have an offsite backup. This is all done on a schedule so I don't have to worry about it too much. Any fails and my backup software (SyncBackSE) sends me an email.

Backups to other machines (if you have more than one in the house) is also another good method and can be set on a schedule.

polybear

Hi,
How do you go about installing a second HDD (I've done RAM and also a FDD) - I've got a Desktop. Does the computer automatically recognise that a second HDD has been installed, or do you need to set it up in some way, maybe in the BIOS?
What happens during a virus infection - does the second drive automatically get infected too, or only when you backup?

Polybear

T4i

polybear wrote:

Hi,
How do you go about installing a second HDD (I've done RAM and also a FDD) - I've got a Desktop. Does the computer automatically recognise that a second HDD has been installed, or do you need to set it up in some way, maybe in the BIOS?
What happens during a virus infection - does the second drive automatically get infected too, or only when you backup?

Polybear

The drive will need a IDE/SATA cable depending on how you conifgure the drive and also a spare MOLEX connector to power it.

You can have the second HDD as a Primary slave or secondary master/slave, like I say depending what you've got already etc.

BIOS should pick it up automatically but you won't be able to use the drive until its had a format (if the drive is brand new) - this is easy to do via windows and will take approx 30mins to do.

Once its had a format it ready to use, as for virus's, it depends what virus it is, some virus's can do more damage than others.

moonrakerz

polybear wrote:

Hi,
How do you go about installing a second HDD (I've done RAM and also a FDD) - I've got a Desktop. Does the computer automatically recognise that a second HDD has been installed, or do you need to set it up in some way, maybe in the BIOS?
What happens during a virus infection - does the second drive automatically get infected too, or only when you backup?

Polybear

It's very easy. Most machines already have spare data and power cables for a second HDD.

Google "installing a second hard drive" and you'll get plenty of info.

A virus can only get into your machine through a running programme, your second drive should not be running anything, its just a store. Run your AV programme before you do a back up - and NEVER do a backup if you suspect you have a problem on your main drive. It's better to save what you have on the second drive than risk losing everything by doing a last minute backup which may be infected.

polybear

Thanks for the replies. If I put a second HDD in (I won't need much - 40Gb would be plenty - 80Gb would last forever) then are there any makes to steer clear of? Will my PSU be o.k.? (I have a PB imedia 1307). Any recommendations for cheap suppliers please? Thanks.

POLYBEAR.

leesmithg

polybear wrote:

I recently had a virus scare with my new computer, after spending ages getting it all set up how I wanted it etc etc. I've recently seen backup programs such as True Image 9.0 and Norton Ghost 10.0. Can I use these to keep a copy of my computer setup/programs/files etc. on CD or DVD. so that if ever I did have problems I would have a copy (I'm hoping that the copy would create, in effect, my exact computer setup in another machine, should the worst happen). At one point recently I was dreading the possibility of having to start all over again with my System Restore Disk, followed by all the free security utilities from the internet etc.
If this would work, which one would you use - True Image or Norton? Thanks.

POLYBEAR.

Only ever used Power Quest now aquired by Norton. I used Norton Ghost 9, which was good, Norton Ghost 10 is better.

I would look on eBay for a version of Norton Ghost 10, I purchased a legit verion for £12 some months back.